


Fireflies

by Accal1a



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 19:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3581538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accal1a/pseuds/Accal1a
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cinema worker, Jasper comes across a boy in one of the screens he is cleaning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireflies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theappleppielifestyle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theappleppielifestyle/gifts).



> This was written for the fic prompt: 
> 
> 'You're lying on the floor of the movie theater crying and I'm the employee who has to tell you another movie starts in five minutes so you have to leave and I'm really sorry but I'm also confused as to why a documentary on lightbugs affected you so much. - AU'

Jasper really hated his job sometimes. 

Sure, it was good that he could watch free films (and even watch them before they came out) but you got some absolute idiots as customers. There were the ones who thought they were entitled and every little thing that went wrong, whether Jasper’s fault or not, was his problem to deal with. There were the ones who wanted to tell you their life story even though there was a queue of hundreds behind them and even though he was trying to politely tell them to leave they just would not get the hint. There were ones who were real cinema nerds but weren’t actually being paid to be cinema nerds so they would walk in with their pads of paper, take notes during the film and walk out again, discussing the cinematography loudly – but only when people were around them - this was how Jasper knew they were posers.

He actually didn’t mind cleaning all that much, it was just the things he found whilst cleaning which made him want to find a new job as soon as possible. Anything that you could think of could be in, around, under or on the seats and a lot of things you couldn’t. It was as if as soon as people wanted to watch a movie on the big screen they turned into animals and all human decency went out the window.

Jasper only had two more rows to go; and five minutes to get them done in he realised, speeding up. His broom hit something hard and he looked down, seeing a foot. 

_Please don’t be a dead body, please don’t be a dead body, please don’t be a dead body._

The mantra repeated in his head as he leaned over to check on the person. Someone in one of the other cinemas in the chain had actually found a dead body when they were cleaning. Someone had just quietly had a heart attack watching a film and no-one noticed because all the other patrons were also busy watching it. When people left, they just assumed the guy was asleep and a lowly cinema worker found him.

He wondered whether he’d get time off it _was_ a dead body.

Leaning over, he saw that the person was lying on the floor, on their back, tears streaming down their face. They were making no move to wipe the tears from their eyes and they were actually pooling at either side of their head. Despite the odd circumstances, Jasper couldn’t help but notice that the guy in front of him was hot. He had beautiful skin, black hair and, Jasper’s personal favourite; he was clearly shorter than him.

“Um, excuse me?” Jasper started, not really sure what the etiquette was in this situation. He stopped hitting his broom into the guy’s legs though, that was probably a faux pas.

“What?” The stranger answered, sitting up.

“Um. Well, I’m cleaning and I’m afraid you’re going to need to leave as the next film is on in a bit.”

“What?” He said again, attempting to stand and falling into a seat instead.

“Look man, you’ve got to go, it’s time for the next…” 

Jasper was cut off as a fresh wave of tears overtook the beautiful man and he sunk his face into his hands. Not really seeing another option, Jasper sank down into the chair next to the guy and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder.

After a minute, the sobs seemed to subside and Jasper stopped doing his shopping list in his head and pulled his attention back to the room. He realised his hand was still on the other boy’s back and he wasn’t sure now when to remove it. Suddenly removing it now seemed just as odd as putting it there in the first place.

The crying stranger lifted his face up from his hands and seemed to appraise Jasper, then lent forwards and planted a kiss straight onto his lips and pulled away. Jasper looked at the guy, shell shocked for a moment.

“Um, thanks?” Jasper replied, again not sure what sort of social situation he appeared to be in.

“Right, sorry, I just really needed a bit of contact.”

“Okay…” Jasper said, suddenly a little worried that he was sitting in the penultimate row of a dim cinema with a complete stranger who seemed to be a little unhinged, with only a broom for protection.

The guy ran his hands through his hair and groaned. “Oh geez, I’m sorry man. I’m not normally this weird.”

Jasper laughed a little. “Good to know. My name’s Jasper, who…”

“Monty.”

“Right, well, Monty, I’m sorry but you really need to…” Jasper started again, remembering his job and chalking this whole experience up to another nutty customer.

“It’s just the film was so important you know?” Monty said, getting more comfortable in the chair.

Jasper just sighed and went with it - another story to tell in the staff room. “The film? The, er natural history film about fireflies?”

Monty just looked across at him, confusion evident.

“Of COURSE, the natural history film about fireflies.” Jasper carried on. “That stuff was, er…deep.”

“Screw the fireflies, you know?” Monty said with slightly more venom.

“Yeah, what do they know?” Jasper responded, really not sure how much of this conversation he was a part of.

“Yeah.” Monty sighed and stood up. “Well, thanks for the chat!”

Jasper also stood, aware that his face was probably a complete mask of confusion and not sure how to school his features into anything different.

Monty was half way down the stairs towards the exit when Jasper shouted after him.

“My shift finishes in 5 minutes, want to get a coffee and talk about the fireflies?” Jasper thought it was probably the oddest sentence he had ever said.

“Nah.” Monty threw back over his shoulder.

Jasper slumped slightly but shrugged, not every sexy boy you ask on a sort of date can say yes. Would have been a great story to tell their kids though about how they’d met.

Monty was at the very bottom of the steps when he fully turned around and shouted back up to where Jasper had started sweeping again.

“I don’t want to talk about the fireflies, but I’d love a coffee.”

Jasper looked down at Monty and he realised his mouth had fallen open. “Cool, great, thanks, good. I’ll, um..”

“…meet you in the foyer?” Monty supplied.

“Yes.” Jasper said, feeling able to at least answer in one syllable.

Then the door to the theatre was slamming shut. Seconds later, the noise of a new crowd of people permeated the corridor and the slamming of doors got louder. Jasper did a very quick sweep of the last row and then nearly skipped down the stairs on the way to the staff room to clock out.

Maybe being a Cinema worker wasn’t such a bad thing after all.


End file.
